Correction officers also got 2 percent raises. The prison guards received the largest chunk of overtime since January, with nearly $80 million, up $7 million for the same period.

They logged approximately 1.5 million hours since January, a nearly 9 percent increase.

All told, prisons as well as psychiatric hospitals and residential centers for disabled people took up nearly 63 percent of overtime. Those operations require thousands of staffers, including guards, aides and health care workers, to run their facilities 24/7.

Taxation and Finance also saw a big jump in overtime in 2013 because of problems with a contractor that handled paper returns, New York Industries for the Disabled, which partnered with a Texas firm, SourceHOV.

Department spokesman Geoffrey Gloak said that as a result of those "significant'' delays last year, the agency has gone back to processing returns in-house.

But changing back has also led to overtime.

"The move required overtime this year to get this operation up and running, and as a result paper refunds were issued faster this year than in the previous two," Gloak said. "While the outside contractor has processed some paper returns for the state this year, its services will not be utilized next tax season."

DiNapoli urged state agencies to examine their staffing practices in order to limit overtime, which pays time-and-a-half and in some instances can boost pension costs down the road.

"Our state agencies need to examine their practices, get to the root of what is driving high overtime and better manage these costs," DiNapoli stated.

Union members say they are feeling the strain. While some workers may welcome the extra money, too much mandated overtime takes its toll.

"A little bit of overtime is good, but the way the state does it it's counterproductive," said CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz.

He added that the state would rather pay overtime than hire more employees.

Hiring more people would raise the overall cost because of fringe benefits such as pension and health care costs.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said more hiring would simply expand the state bureaucracy.

"This year, we are spending $588 million less in personnel costs — including overtime — than the last year of the previous administration and all state agencies are within their current budget, which has remained flat for the past three years," Azzopardi said in an email.

"Overtime is used carefully and only when needed. The alternative would be a larger, more expensive, state bureaucracy that New York taxpayers can no longer afford."